Thank you, James Zogby

James Zogby, born and raised in upstate NY, is best known for political and policy research, with expertise in Arab American affairs. He’s received a public service award from the U.S. Department of State for his work, and was asked by then V.P. Al Gore to lead Builders for Peace.

I’ve heard him speak once, and was impressed by his soft-spoken level-headedness. Even in the midst of death threats (we’re talking, fire-bombing of his former D.C. office).

Zogby’s is another life, I think, that should be set in a movie (read the WP article below for a slice of his life), risking his life to basically stand up for justice, even for those whose faith he does not share. We, as American Muslims, could learn a lot from his example.

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James Zogby, a Catholic of Lebanese descent, works to dispel myths about Arabs

By Monica Hesse, Washington Post Staff Writer, Oct. 20, 2010

In the early days after 9/11, employees of the Arab American Institute huddled in their modest K Street offices, afraid to leave the building. Police downstairs guarded the entrance, serving as protection from those who might deliver on the death threats sent to the nonprofit’s founder and president, James Zogby.

Raghead, they had said. I’ll slit your throat.

This is not the story that Zogby likes to tell. He prefers the one that happened next, the one where, in the middle of the threats and the police and the fact that the world had suddenly gone pear-shaped, he heard a timid knock…